Fat mothers banned from maternity ward

An NHS hospital has banned clinically obese women from giving birth in its maternity ward.

Mothers-to-be who have a body mass index (BMI) of over 34, the equivalent of an average woman of 5ft 6ins weighing 15 stone, will be turned away from Weston General Hospital, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Instead patients will have to travel 20 miles to the nearest full-facilitated maternity unit at St Michael’s Hospital, Bristol.

Weston Area Health Trust said women were aware of the policy from the start of their pregnancies.

A spokeswoman for the trust said: “Our foremost concern is for the safety of mothers who deliver here and their babies.

“Mothers with a high BMI are at increased risk in labour of bleeding, needing an instrumental delivery, or complications such as the baby’s shoulder becoming trapped behind the pubic bone.

“For these reasons of safety only, we advise women with a BMI of more than 34 that they will need to deliver at the full obstetric unit at St Michael’s in Bristol.

“Similarly, women who have gained more than 44lb (20kg) in 36 weeks of pregnancy are also told they will need to deliver in Bristol.

“Our aim is to protect our mothers and babies and to make sure they deliver in the most appropriate place to meet their needs.”

Figures from the Department of Health state that obesity cost primary care trusts £4.2 billion last year.

Two years ago staff at Ealing Hospital, west London, were warned not to send obese patients to its first floor waiting room amid fears the building could not take their weight.

Patients who weighed 30 stone or more were instead fast-tracked to ground floor wards because management was worried that they were too heavy for the admissions ward upstairs